I would say planted, plants take out nitrates and nitrites! I set up my 37 not planted but I wish that I would've, I am going to try to make the switch soon!

+1

Planting is so much better! My goldie tank has a single layer of glass marbles, but I took a pretty glass candleholder (large) and filled it with pebbles and anchored my anacharis in it. Now my goldies can snack AND it filters out a teeny bit ;)

In my tank, first I'm going to try Java Fern, Java Moss, and maybe a floating plant or Anacharis! If I do Anacharis, I'm going to plant it in a pot or large PVC pipe and then disguise it with the Java Moss.

I am sorry but the fish you got are very territorial and aggressive an your tank is too small. This site has a very good list of fish profiles that includes their water requirements, behaviors, and pictures so you can figure out what the other one is. Choose the fish you will keep and give the others to a local fish store if you can't find a permanent home for them.
Personally I did not care for how aggressive my convicts got. The male was so aggressive the females never left the corner, even to eat. You will need dither fish as well either way. Danios and barbs are good choices. If you want the splash of color you can get glo fish which are genetically engineered danios. The purpose of dither fish is to bother your cichlids out of their caves or hiding spots by invading "their space" so that you can see them. Dither fish need to be non-poisonous to your fish in case your fish get lucky and catch one. If I remember right some tetras are poisonous to cichlids.

Last edited by Blackfeet; 08-13-2012 at 05:53 PM.
Reason: This was for fishHERO27

Alright, should I just go with the Marineland Double Bright or should I use the Marineland Aquatic Plant LED for plants?

If you want plant then go with a plant light. Personally wouldn't use an LED light. LED lights have a lot of bad reviews about some of the bulbs going out. I agree with them as well. My solar max light has 2 t5 HO bulbs and 8 blue LEDs that you can't turn off 3 bulbs are dead and 3 more are functioning at less than half brightness. The moonlight option is cool but with LEDs unless you are fine with doing circuit board work you are stuck with it. T5 ho lights are also half the price as well. FYI you need HO bulbs if your tank is 18 inches or deeper and it seems to be the opinion here that plant bulbs aren't intense enough for the light to penetrate to the bottom so the 10k & 12k lights are better for deeper tanks. As a side benefit they really pick up the blue, green and red of you fish. My single 10k bulb made my cardinals look like floating flags

Well, I'm having a problem with my heater. Last night I checked the temp. in the tank and it was just a little low. So I turned it up, this morning the temperature was even lower. The heater shows that it is on, but i think the heating element is broken. Taking suggestions for heaters.